A wink is just an expression we call a wink. We can then analyze what a wink it philosophically and make claims about it. So one is the experienced phenomena the other is inquiring about that phenoma.
It can but then you are back to subjective interpretation.
You can wink, that wink can have meaning or it's just a wink or you got something in your eye. How do you determine what it is without having used language somehow to establish what a wink could mean? And that's just on the surface of the amgiguity.
Edit: Language is fascinating, of course. However, I find the underlying mental layers that support it to be equally fascinating, if not more so.